Business Builders

🔔🔔 Willie McMahon built, scaled, and sold a 45-person engineering business - then walked away to help other founders do it better. 🔔🔔
Willie is giving away 10 copies of the book Traction on a first come first served basis. If you’re running a company with between 10 - 250 employees, contact Willie to get your free copy: [email protected]
Willie McMahon, EOS Implementer and founder of CalX (exited) joins Business Builders to share how he went from a one-man operation to building and exiting a scaling engineering business - and what he learned along the way.
Starting with no plan, no funding, and no support network, Willie built a calibration and instrumentation business from scratch. What began as a solo operation grew into a 45-person company, navigating cash flow pressure, hiring challenges, and the realities of bootstrapping - before eventually merging and exiting.
But the journey wasn’t smooth. Growth nearly broke the business multiple times. Hiring mistakes, cash constraints, and operational complexity forced hard decisions - including turning down major opportunities that could have destroyed everything.
Willie shares how 90-day execution cycles and relentless problem-solving helped them scale - even before formally discovering EOS (Entrepreneurial Operating System).
The conversation dives into what actually drives business success: people, structure, and clarity. Willie explains why most problems are not what they seem, why founders are often the bottleneck, and how systems - not effort - create scalable companies.
He also opens up about the emotional side of building and selling a business: risk, fear, responsibility, and the moment you realise you’re responsible for other people’s livelihoods.
Now working with founders through EOS, Willie helps businesses break through growth ceilings, build stronger cultures, and create structure that enables freedom.
This is a conversation about entrepreneurship, scaling, leadership, and building a business that actually works.
“It's not the person - it's the system around them.”
🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:
How Willie built and scaled a business from 1 to 45 people
 Why most businesses hit growth ceilings (and how to break through them)
 The reality of bootstrapping and managing cash flow
 Why hiring “another you” is a mistake
 How to think about risk as a founder
 Why short-term (90-day) thinking drives long-term growth
 The importance of culture and hiring the right people
 How to structure a business for scale
 Why most problems are systems problems, not people problems
 The emotional reality of selling a business
 How EOS helps founders gain clarity, control, and freedom
 Why you must grow as a person to grow your business
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 - Cold open
 00:55 - Introducing Willie McMahon and EOS
 02:00 - What calibration and instrumentation actually is
 05:00 - Early career and falling into the industry
 08:30 - The moment he decided to start his own business
 11:00 - First hires and early hiring mistakes
 14:30 - “I didn’t need another me”
 16:00 - Bootstrapping and surviving on cash flow
 18:00 - 90-day targets and early growth
 21:00 - Becoming an employer and responsibility for people
 23:00 - Turning down a huge opportunity
 26:00 - Fear, risk, and decision-making as a founder
 30:00 - Discovering EOS and business frameworks
 33:00 - Why founders must grow to scale their business
 37:00 - Building culture (and the fictional character hiring test)
 42:00 - Merging the business and scaling rapidly
 46:00 - Managing operations, hiring, and field teams
 53:00 - Marketing tactics that actually worked
 57:00 - Growth during COVID and scaling chall

🔔🔔 Gowri Subramanian built a $200M global software company over 25 years - without venture capital 🔔🔔
Gowri Subramanian, CEO of Aspire Systems, joins Business Builders to share how he built and scaled a global technology services company from zero to $200M in revenue; entirely bootstrapped.
What started as a group of seven friends with no clear plan or funding became a 4,500-person software and technology services business working with global enterprises across the US, Europe, and beyond. But the journey was slow and difficult. It took years to find product-market fit, pivot away from a non-scaling business model, and reach profitability.
Gowri explains how Aspire evolved from an industrial engineering consultancy into a software product engineering company, a pivot that unlocked growth. Instead of raising venture capital, the company reinvested profits and used debt funding to scale, taking a long-term approach. 
Moving from $10M to $100M required one set of capabilities; but, scaling beyond that meant competing with global firms like Accenture, Capgemini, and Infosys. Gowri shares why every stage requires a different company, strategy, and mindset.
The conversation also explores AI and its impact on the software industry. Gowri explains why AI threatens traditional time-and-materials models, while also creating opportunities in legacy modernisation, enterprise transformation, and custom software.
Beyond strategy, this episode dives into leadership, culture, and long-term thinking. Gowri shares why people and open feedback are critical to scaling, and why he’s focused on building a business for the long term - not for exit - including creating impact through philanthropy in India.
This is a conversation about entrepreneurship, scaling, AI disruption, and building something that lasts.
“Business is a rat race - there is no finish line.”
🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:
How Gowri built Aspire Systems into a $200M global company
 Why the first 7 years of business were the hardest
 The importance of pivoting when a business isn’t scaling
 How to grow without venture capital
 Why scaling from $100M to $200M is so difficult
 What changes at each stage of growth
 How to compete with global firms like Accenture and Infosys
 The real impact of AI on software businesses
 Why AI is both a threat and an opportunity
 How culture and people drive success
 The role of persistence over decades
 Why teaching skills creates more impact than charity
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 - Cold open
 00:55 - Introducing Gowri Subramanian and Aspire Systems
 02:00 - What Aspire Systems does
 05:00 - Moving from India to Singapore and Ireland
 06:00 - Starting with no plan or funding
 09:00 - 7 founders to 3
 12:00 - Early business model and pivot
 13:30 - Shutting down one business
 14:30 - Road to profitability
 18:00 - Early ambition
 21:30 - Bootstrapping vs VC
 22:30 - Growth to $100M
 25:30 - Scaling challenges
 27:30 - “Business is a rat race”
 29:30 - AI and the future
 34:30 - Culture and leadership
 37:00 - Open feedback
 40:00 - Founder mindset
 47:30 - Angel investing
 50:00 - India’s growth
 59:30 - Philanthropy
 01:05:00 - Long-term vision
Topics covered:
Entrepreneurship, scaling a business, bootstrapping, venture capital, AI and business, software industry, technology services, leadership, company culture, global expansion, startups, India economy, product engineering, long-term business building, philanthropy, founders

🔔🔔 Laura Dowling, founder of fabÜ, built a business by talking about topics most people avoid; and it changed everything 🔔🔔
Laura Dowling joins Business Builders to share how she turned women’s health - one of the most overlooked and under-discussed areas in healthcare - into a fast-growing brand, a platform, and a movement.
What started as years of frustration working as a pharmacist and seeing women suffer in silence with issues no one was talking about, evolved into a business, a movement, and a platform for education.
Laura explains how she spent over a decade developing formulations before launching fabÜ from her couch, without retail backing or a traditional business plan. By building an audience on Instagram and speaking openly about topics many considered taboo, she created demand first - and the business followed.
Along the way, she uncovered something deeper: women’s health has been historically misunderstood, under-discussed, and often dismissed. From menopause to intimate health, many women simply aren’t given the language, knowledge, or confidence to understand their own bodies.
In this episode, Laura shares how she turned that insight into a brand, a live show, and a bestselling book - all while staying true to her voice and refusing to sanitise the message.
She also opens up about failure, launching without a plan, living with ADHD as a founder, and why building a business doesn’t always follow a straight line.
This is a conversation about entrepreneurship, identity, and the power of saying the things no one else is willing to say.
“People are embarassed  to talk about it - but that’s exactly why it matters.”
🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why Laura started fabÜ and the problem she saw in women’s health
 How she built a business without a traditional plan
 The realities of launching a product with no retail backing
 Why Instagram played a key role in growing her audience
 How taboo topics became her biggest advantage
 What women’s health issues are still not being talked about
 How to build a brand by being unapologetically yourself
 The role of ADHD in her entrepreneurial journey
 Why founders should trust instinct over “perfect” market research
 How purpose and mission can drive long-term business growth
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 - Cold open
 00:55 - Introducing Laura Dowling and fabÜ
 02:10 - Launching the business from her couch
 05:30 - Preventative health vs “sick care”
 08:45 - Building an audience on Instagram
 14:00 - ADHD and the entrepreneurial mind
 21:00 - Why we don’t talk about women’s health
 24:45 - The talk that changed everything
 27:30 - Turning taboo into a business
 30:15 - Breaking stigma and building a brand
 35:30 - Growing without a traditional plan
 39:15 - Ask for forgiveness, not permission
 43:15 - Trusting instinct over market research
 53:00 - Hiring, team building and culture
 01:00:00 - Asking for help and final advice
Topics covered:
Entrepreneurship, women’s health, fabÜ, supplements, startup founders, personal branding, Instagram marketing, ADHD and business, health education, building a brand, taboo topics, consumer products.

My guest today is Jayne Ronayne, Co-Founder and CEO of OAC Snacks, an e-commerce company focusing on high protein snacks that are simple, delicious and made for real life. 
Jayne previously founded employee experience platform Talivest, which raised over €3 million in its lifetime (from some very big named investors) and was acquired by the Australian tech company Go1 in 2022.
In this chat, Jayne talks about:
Why she’s turning her back on the business “holy grail” of SAAS, and getting into the difficult & competitive food industry 

Starting and Growing Talivest to a successful exit

Why she views being dyslexic as an advantage in business 

Burnout, fund raising, and the importance of healthy food in our lives. 

Much more
Topics covered:
Entrepreneurship, SAAS, software companies, raising venture capital, food startups, OAC Snacks, protein snacks, food manufacturing, consumer brands, startup founders, healthy snack industry, product development, building a food brand.

Ann O’Dea joins Business Builders for a wide-ranging conversation about entrepreneurship, technology, artificial intelligence, and building a media business at the dawn of the internet.
As co-founder of Silicon Republic, Ann helped launch one of Ireland’s leading technology news platforms at a time when almost nobody was reading news online. Advertisers didn’t believe in digital media, the audience was tiny, and the future of the internet was still uncertain.
Instead of waiting for the market to catch up, she built for where the world was going.
From cycling floppy disks between newsrooms in the early days of digital publishing, to navigating the 2008 financial crash, media disruption, and the rise of AI and the modern tech industry, Ann explains what it takes to build and sustain a niche media company for more than 25 years.
But this episode goes far beyond journalism.
Ann reflects on the emotional reality of founding and running a business - worrying about payroll even decades into entrepreneurship, learning the hard lessons of hiring, and the importance of having a co-founder when building a startup.
She also shares her views on the future of artificial intelligence, technology, and digital media, and why diversity in STEM is essential if we want the best minds solving the world’s biggest problems.
This is a conversation about resilience, curiosity, leadership, and building a business that evolves alongside the technology shaping the modern world.
🎧 In this episode, you’ll learn:
Why Ann launched Silicon Republic when almost nobody was online
What it was like building a digital media startup in the early internet era
The realities of entrepreneurship - even after 25 years in business
Why having a co-founder can make or break a startup
The difference between chasing clicks and building real audiences
How the 2008 financial crisis nearly destroyed the business
Why curiosity is one of the most important traits in journalism and leadership
The risks and opportunities of AI in media and technology
Why purpose matters more than money for long-term entrepreneurs
Why women in STEM are essential for the future of innovation
⏱️ Timestamps
00:00 - The early days of the internet
 01:17 - What Silicon Republic actually does as a business
 05:22 - The realities of entrepreneurship
 12:16 - Why founders should consider having a co-founder
 17:53 - Why niche audiences beat clickbait
 25:36 - Lessons from the 2008 financial crash
 29:32 - Why purpose matters in business
 31:46 - Hiring the right people
 42:49 - The future of AI and technology
 59:32 - Why women in STEM matters
Topics covered:
Entrepreneurship, startup leadership, Silicon Republic, technology journalism, artificial intelligence, AI and media, digital publishing, founders, building a media company, tech industry trends.